Ulta Beauty is Facing Lawsuits Among Reselling Allegations

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Ulta Trouble

One of the country’s fastly-growing companies is facing lawsuits for health allegations. ULTA Beauty chain originated in Chicago and has quickly spread over the United States. The makeup and beauty stores sell a variety of products, ranging from bubble baths, perfume, and high-end makeup brands.

The Problem

Back in January, a Facebook post claiming that managers at Ulta Beauty do not discard returned makeup start swirling around. The alleged claim being that the store repackages and sells used items. Instead of sending returned makeup to be damaged, managers would request the employees to repackage and resell. Since then, more allegations from Ulta employees have come about and now, a pending lawsuit.

California native Kimberly Laura Smith-Brown is suing the company for what she calls “widespread and surreptitious practice” according to New Beauty. “Every customer who has purchased cosmetics at Ulta since this practice began was put at risk of unwittingly purchasing used, unsanitary cosmetics and this risk reduces the desirability and value of all cosmetics sold by Ulta,” the lawsuit reports.

Amongst the lawsuit and accusations, former employees of Ulta Beauty verified the rumors. Some claiming that they felt pressured to resell the items. Brittany Ludwig, a former operations manager at Ulta Beauty claims she saw staff at one store “cleaning” lip products, according to CBS News. “We had other managers come in from other stores and they were saying ‘OK, yeah, you need to clean all these returns, you need to clean this, this is how you’re going to get your numbers down,’” she said. “And it was all a numbers game.”

Photo: CBS News

A Possible Solution?

Following the allegations, Ulta Beauty has released this comment, according to Insider.

“Ulta Beauty’s policies and practices do not allow the resale of used, damaged or expired products. As the nation’s largest beauty retailer, we take protecting the integrity of the products we sell very seriously. Based on our review of these allegations, we are confident that our stores uphold our policies and practices. Assertions to the contrary are inconsistent with what we stand for. Our growth and success continues to be built on delivering the highest quality products and the best guest experience in-store and online. We remain unwavering in our commitment to providing the exceptional experience our guests have come to expect from us.”